Google gets into word processing!

I thought this was coming. I see no reason why Google won’t have a web version of all the Microsoft Office apps within the next year or so. We won’t need a desktop OS or Office Suite when Google offers all the functionality we need online. (And for free!)

It’s ridiculous to pay Microsoft as much software when you buy a new computer than you pay for the hardware.

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I am a student. I am on a different computer everday, sometimes several different computers a day. I don’t buy my own computer because I can’t afford it and because I have no need. I always have access to one. I use online applications like Gmail as a makeshift personal hard drive. I use pyxlinâ

Poll after poll shows that people have a deathly fear of Office Online. I have a hard enough time posting to a discussion board without it or me getting kicked offline for 2 seconds, or getting a 500 error and having to start over, etc. I assume these things will be fixed, but not in the first few generations.

Besides, as long as Microsoft keeps their standards closed, they’re safe. I’ve never actually seen someone use OpenOffice who has a choice, and those who do will invariably be stuck with files no one supports in a few years. Until Word reads Google or Open Office, both Google & Open Office are cursed to the depths of the Anti-Microsoft kids. Let me be even more shock-oriented by saying desktop Linux will never survive for the same reason. High school kids and third-world countries just don’t have the economic clout.

[…] While I’m writing, I might as well mention the Google beta launch of a shareable spreadsheet application. Combined with their Writely word processor acquisition a few months back, this is one more step towards a Microsoft Office-less world, or, at least a step towards a free ad-supported software world. I think it is possible that Google will force Microsoft to shift their business model from software licensing to free ad-supported software, at least for their consumer and small business software. Otherwise, Google will just keep stealing customers away. […]